Regional Health to participate in Yale-Mayo Clinic Opioid Research

Regional Health has been selected to participate in a two-year study by Yale University and Mayo Clinic on patient experiences with pain and the use of opioids prescribed for acute pain.

Yale and the Mayo Clinic were awarded a grant for up to $5.3 million by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The project is part of the Center of Excellence in Regulatory Science and Innovation (CERSI)<https://medicine.yale.edu/core/current_projects/cersi/>, a joint effort between Yale, Mayo Clinic and the FDA. The study will be conducted in collaboration with Regional Health and University of Alabama at Birmingham.

“We are honored to be selected for this important research,” said Stephen Tamang, M.D., the Regional Health physician who is involved in the project. “It’s more important than ever for physicians to have evidence-based guidelines for safer prescribing practices.”

Many studies have described the differences reported by patients between the amount of opioids prescribed and the amount that they actually used to manage acute pain. However, these studies have had several limitations, and have not considered diverse populations that may have different demographics and social or cultural norms regarding opioid use, Yale officials said in a release.

To better inform prescribing guidelines and public health measures, data are needed from diverse populations of patients about their use of opioids to manage acute pain; about pain experienced and response to opioids; and about how patients dispose of these medications after use.